December 16th, 2023 CBC another success as temps ranged from 35F at sunrise to 51F by the end of the afternoon although a NE wind with gusts to 16 mph had a little bite to it. Other than a few minor cold snaps, winter really hadn’t showed up. We outdid last year’s count by two species and logged 27,254 birds comprised of 115 species! Equally impressive were 21 count parties and 41 participants including a new birder, Mollie Bryant that jumped in by herself and logged over eight hours of birding. We once again had several dozen participants show up at Johnny’s for a nice count tally/dinner!
Candidate for most unexpected bird was a White-faced Ibis, earlier reported on e-Bird, that the Mays team found foraging near the canal inlet, possibly injured/sick although several birders had seen it flying. Lost track of its status and whether it was still hanging around when the polar vortex barreled down into the state on January 14th.
Other high-quality birds include a Red-throated Loon and two Western Grebes (Mays team), 72 Franklin’s Gulls (Woodard and Marra teams), and one Fish Crow (Tucker team). Also, 13 Great Egrets, Four Turkey Vultures, five Bald Eagles, six Black-crowned Night Herons, and 12 Lesser Black-backed Gulls all impressed me too although arbitrary as there were many other impressive birds just as noteworthy.
As always, please check our Club’s webpage at https://okc-audubon.org for any updates to the CBC list that Pat Velte will be post. Thank you for everyone that made this count very special and making a commitment to sacrifice an entire day near Christmas!
Participants stating first with new members bolded: Trina Arnold; Mollie Bryant; Cole Penny; John Cleal, Marion Homier; Steve Davis, Mary Lane, Terri Underhill; Larry Mays, Bill Diffin, Jerry Vanbebber, Aaron Mechem; Jacob Crissup; Neil Garrison; Morton Payne, Johnson Hightower, Steve Parker; Warren Harden, Nancy Vicars; Jimmy Woodard, Nadine Varner; Patricia Velte; Nathan Kuhnert, Susan Prescott, Allison Jones, Allison Jones, Nathan Jones, Kaye Jones; Kathleen Tucker, Esther Key, Valerie Kepler; Hal Yocum, Pat McGaugh; Brian Marra, Grace Huffman, Steve Stone; Jerry Taylor, Marilyn Taylor; Patti Muzny, Brian Munzy; and John Sterling.
Nathan Kuhnert, Compiler
| Species | #birds |
|
Species | # birds |
|
Species | #birds | ||
| Greater White-fronted Goose | 1 | American Coot | 364 | Hermit Thrush | 2 | ||||
| Snow Goose (white form) | CW | Killdeer | 62 | American Robin | 607 | ||||
| Cackling Goose | 56 | Greater Yellowlegs | 42 | Northern Mockingbird | 42 | ||||
| Canada Goose | 1287 | Least Sandpiper | 10 | Brown Thrasher | 2 | ||||
| Ross’s Goose | 1 | Wilson’s Snipe | 1 | European Starling | 6527 | ||||
| Wood Duck | 27 | Bonaparte’s Gull | 270 | American Pipit | 3 | ||||
| Gadwall | 230 | Franklin’s Gull | 72 | Cedar Waxwing | 57 | ||||
| American Wigeon | 3 | Ring-billed Gull | 7536 | Orange-crowned Warbler | 28 | ||||
| Mallard | 472 | Herring Gull | 174 | Common Yellowthroat | 1 | ||||
| Northern Shoveler | 404 | Lesser Black-backed Gull | 12 | Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) | 72 | ||||
| Northern Pintail | 2 | Forster’s Tern | 36 | Spotted Towhee | 22 | ||||
| American Green-winged Teal | 45 | Rock Pigeon | 715 | American Tree Sparrow | 1 | ||||
| Canvasback | 57 | Eurasian Collared-Dove | 31 | Field Sparrow | 16 | ||||
| Redhead | 23 | White-winged Dove | 13 | Savannah Sparrow | 1 | ||||
| Ring-necked Duck | 78 | Mourning Dove | 218 | Fox Sparrow | 26 | ||||
| Lesser Scaup | 86 | Greater Roadrunner | 2 | Song Sparrow | 23 | ||||
| Bufflehead | 56 | Eastern Screech-Owl | 1 | Lincoln Sparrow | 1 | ||||
| Common Goldeneye | 66 | Great Horned Owl | 4 | Swamp Sparrow | 12 | ||||
| Hooded Merganser | 94 | Barred Owl | CW | White-throated Sparrow | 41 | ||||
| Common Merganser | 9 | Belted Kingfisher | 22 | Harris’s Sparrow | 222 | ||||
| Red-breasted Merganser | 293 | Red-headed Woodpecker | 5 | White-crowned Sparrow | 9 | ||||
| Ruddy Duck | 40 | Red-bellied Woodpecker | 33 | Dark-eyed Junco | 143 | ||||
| Pacific Loon | CW | Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | 1 | Lapland Longspur | CW | ||||
| Common Loon | 13 | Downy Woodpecker | 37 | Northern Cardinal | 194 | ||||
| Red-throated Loon | 1 | Hairy Woodpecker | 3 | Red-winged Blackbird | 440 | ||||
| Pied-billed Grebe | 75 | Northern Flicker | 60 | Eastern Meadowlark | 62 | ||||
| Horned Grebe | 32 | Pileated Woodpecker | CW | Rusty Blackbird | 10 | ||||
| Western Grebe | 2 | Eastern Phoebe | 6 | Common Grackle | 8 | ||||
| American White Pelican | 1209 | Blue Jay | 122 | Great-tailed Grackle | 187 | ||||
| Double-crested Cormorant | 2957 | American Crow | 225 | Brown-headed Cowbird | 26 | ||||
| Great Blue Heron (blue form) | 84 | Fish Crow | 1 | House Finch | 116 | ||||
| Great Egret | 13 | Horned Lark | 3 | Pine Siskin | 15 | ||||
| Black-crowned Night-Heron | 6 | Carolina Chickadee | 104 | American Goldfinch | 74 | ||||
| White-faced Ibis | 1 | Tufted Titmouse | 16 | House Sparrow | 91 | ||||
| Turkey Vulture | 4 | White-breasted Nuthatch | 2 | ||||||
| Bald Eagle | 5 | Brown Creeper | 1 | ||||||
| Northern Harrier | 3 | Carolina Wren | 55 | Number of birds counted | 7856 | ||||
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 3 | Bewick’s Wren | 10 | ||||||
| Cooper’s Hawk | 9 | House Wren | CW | ||||||
| Red-shouldered Hawk | 21 | Winter Wren | 6 | ||||||
| Red-tailed Hawk | 69 | Marsh Wren | 3 | ||||||
| American Kestrel (Northern) | 17 | Golden-crowned Kinglet | 5 | ||||||
| Merlin | 2 | Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 27 | ||||||
| Prairie Falcon | CW | Eastern Bluebird | 7 | ||||||